Episode34
A New Black Eye Leader Rises We picked up where we left off with the Twins defeated and loot to be looted. Unfortunately, most of the good stuff was melted by friendly/enemy area effect so we only managed to snag four items of interest. The rest, including the Reaver remains (damn you, Joe!) was blasted into non-existence during the battle. After dealing with our priorities ("loot first, ask questions later"), we spoke to Bomber, Skillrik, and Skip(?) about what had just happened and why they shouldn't kill us immediately for immolating the King. They joined us in the Ritual chamber where Kiwi made a valiant effort to revive the King but, in a scene reminiscent of Star Wars, he appeared as a phantom and told us he was not ready to return since he was now free. Skillrik was whispering nasty things about us to her comrades but cooler heads prevailed and we agreed to meet back at the Keep with the Queen and Vizier. During this time, Oz decided it would be a good idea to return to the Study to see what could be salvaged. However, his plan didn't work out so well since he was very quickly Entrapped and again lay helpless. Mental Note: Use Survival to disable traps not 'hoping to roll better this time'. Luckily, Oz fell next to a pile of loot belonging to the King's guard so it wasn't long before everyone else rolled in. One of the other Treewee was also Entrapped which made Oz feel a bit better although he was unable to express it at the time. Thanks to Kiwi, Oz was again freed but the trap had ultimately prevented Oz from scooping their gear before they arrived. We briefly paused to free the remaining prisoners and to track down an Acolyte that had the audacity to steal Cowaclac's Ice Mace (it fell near him when her hand was severed). Then, we headed out and were immediately impressed by the progress made by the Black Eye's building the Gate. It was nearly ready! Kiwi decided it would be good to head over and either break it up or take over so we flew down to exert our PC influence. On a floating platform was the leader, Tsssk'Tssk'Tssk (or something like that), who did not seem happy to see us at all. We explained to him that the Twins were dead and the Black Eyes were leaderless so he may as well give up and finish building the Gate for us. He liked the idea of becoming the new leader (I think it was Joe that actually suggested that) which was a problem since he didn't want to work for us. After checking to make sure he wasn't possessed, Oz figured the best way to quickly gain control of the workforce was to stage a public 'trial by combat' between Tssk and Kiwi in front of everyone. It took a bit of fast-talking but he managed to convince him to agree (Kiwi didn't need convincing) so the fight was set. Or so we thought, anyway, because Tssk immediately cast a portal and jumped through it before Kiwi could land the killing blow. Making the best of things we declared Kiwi as the new leader of the Black Eyes. The workforce seemed to buy it so we set them to work finishing the Ring Gate while we cajoled, convinced, and threatened anyone who wasn't going along. The Gate was finished at the end of the block so we hooked it up to the shuttle and towed it back to the Monarchy. Oh, it should be noted that we had them build it in pieces that could be easily assembled later. That way no Reavers would be able to gate through unexpectedly. Safety first! Back at the Monarchy tree ('the Keep') we were summoned by Vizier Kruze who filled us in on what he'd been up to. He had been putting out Black Eye fires on other trees but it was worse than thought. The Black Eyes had managed to convince a good portion of the Home Trees that the Monarchy was responsible for recent sabotages so they were up in arms and ready to fight. As a result, the Monarchy's influence was greatly reduced and it was going to be much harder for us to save all of the Treewee. He was also concerned that a new leader would rise and take over the power vacuum. We looked down shuffled our feet a bit at that. He was also interested in the King's demise so we gave him the details without making Joe look like the cold-blooded murderer he really was. The Vizier seemed to appreciate that the King had declined to return since he had escaped the Reaver influence which was a relief because it would have been a shame to watch Joe get executed. After the Vizier, we had an audience with the Queen who was happy to hear that we had defeated the Twins but crushed to hear that her husband had died. We didn't get much out of her after that since she retreated in tears to her chambers. At this point, we split the party (always a good idea, right?). With so much needing doing in such a short time it seemed like the best thing to do. Kiwi/Oz, remained in The Keep to politic things along. Pete went to gather Tree Metal materials, and Joe went back to Home Tree One to prepare it for travel. Joe attached the FTL drive so its now operative. He also built a self-deploying mechanism for the Ring Gate so it could automatically deploy to 'gate mode' and then retract for safe stowage. Home Tree One is ready to launch! Oz/Kiwi, met with a number of Treewee VIP's. First, it was the Aidobodah (I want to say Dagobah) tribe who were the next most powerful tribe in the monarchy (6 trees). They already had science monkey help and were fully onboard with the plan so we told them to gather the trees at the Keep as soon as they were ready. We also met the Seers who were happy about the progress but concerned about the potential for Reaver incursion since the Black Eyes were now known (Tsssk had told us) that they were all teaching each other the Tree Gate ritual. We asked them to keep an eye out for triple tree formations and Gate rituals. They agreed that if they saw one to either disrupt it or tell us so we could. During each of the meetings we called for a 'General's assembly' with the Queen so we could organize ourselves but with the Queen in morning it was hard to push anything forward. Finally, we met Mandrake who was guarding the Supply Depot. We told him we wanted to use the rest of the material to build a second Ring Gate (or more specifically have the Black Eyes do it (we had left them doing team building exercises, documentation, and project retrospectives until we returned) but he convinced us that it was folly to waste resources to build a gate when the Trees would work just fine. Instead he shared a bold plan to train hundreds of Treewees in Vehicle Engineering and use a smaller amount of depot supplies to build FTL drives on a handful of trees. If Joe could teach their best teachers then they could teach many others. In only two learning cycles (6 blocks) we could have dozens of Treewee Engineers ready to build the drives. He described this as 'thinking like a Squirrel' where sheer numbers are used to overcome a problem. It was pretty compelling so we abandoned the second Gate plan and Joe prepared to kick off one of the most epic teaching sessions in galactic history. Oz also tried contacting Purrina to find out more about who hired the Spetznatz but was unable to contact the Tachyon relay station. It seems that the Spetnatz have jammed all communication so we're cut off from the rest of the galaxy. Oz tried busting through the jam but was unsuccessful (having a Com program would sure be helpful!). Maybe Pete will have better luck. At this point, we reconvened and figured out what to do with our 3 blocks while Joe was teaching tree dwellers the intricacies of Relativistic engines. The Treewee leaders needed some time so we had a chance for some self-improvement blocks. Oz and Kiwi used the Spirit Seed ritual knowledge gained from the Sacred Library to boost two of their Grafts by three levels. This can only be done once per character but doesn't require any special pre-reqs so Joe and Pete can do it as well if they take the time and use a Seed. Oz also spent a block interrogating the Acolyte retrieved from the Reaver Cathedral which - hopefully - revealed some useful intel. After the blocks were done we were called to the General's Assembly (with the Queen) where we were told that the Black Eye's had destroyed one of the Dagobah tribe's trees in a treacherous attack. It was now known that Tssk had assumed leadership over the Black Eye's and they were using their influence over the other tribes to start an all-out war between Treewee. The General's had decided that it was time to take out their leadership -again - and we were the people to do it. We agreed so they provided some intel on possible locations where he might be hiding. That was pretty much where we left off. 22 Genaric 11 academic for Karlid . Back to Space Junk Log Category:Space Junk